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A two-block development by Oregon Health and Science University will have to come back next month for a fourth appearance in front of the Portland Design Commission, and time is of the essence.

Design commissioners have asked the project team from ZGF Architects to return for the Feb. 4 review armed with a small three-dimensional model of the proposed two-building project as well as detailed answers to several design concerns.

The design review is for two buildings on the OHSU South Waterfront campus on Southwest Bond Avenue. The first is a 15-story, 378,000-square-foot hospital and clinic building to be called Center for Health and Healing South. It will be connected to CHH North by a sky bridge over Whitaker Avenue.

Across Bond Street from CHH South will be an 11-story building with six floors of guest residences over a four-story parking garage.

For OHSU, the sooner the design review for the two buildings is finished, the better.

鈥淭he reason we wanted to come back so quickly is so we can keep it on schedule,鈥� OHSU spokesman Brian Newman said after the meeting. 鈥淚t’s such a unique program and it raises some unique questions. It’s easy to come away (from review meetings) with a negative because that’s their focus. But there’s been so much positive on 90 percent of the project, we just have to focus on these few remaining issues.鈥�

Newman said he hopes the new facilities will open in 2018 because their timely development is critical to the future of OHSU.

鈥淲e are creating a new kind of facility that doesn’t exist,鈥� he said. 鈥淗alf of our patients come from outside the Portland area, which is why we included housing.鈥�

At the design review meeting on Thursday, city planner Tim Heron said staff still has concerns about certain aspects of the two buildings, specifically activating building corners, parking garage screening, location of patient drop off and lack of detail for signage.

LENGTHY DISCUSSION

Commissioners had a lengthy discussion on a new design for the patient drop off area at CHH South on Southwest Curry Street, which ultimately seemed to get their approval.

David Staczek, architect with ZGF Architects, said the design team felt having the patient drop off on Curry Street was the best choice. He presented commissioners with a new design that cuts back the corners of the building near the covered drop off point. The drop-off area, he said, will be 16 feet tall and 35 feet wide with a 24-foot drive lane as well as sidewalk and pedestrian zones.

鈥淚t opens the corners and the building mass steps down to (Caruthers Park),鈥� Staczek said. 鈥淭he canted walls and grade give it a more open feel and allow more sunlight.鈥�

Kurt Krueger, development review manager with the Portland Bureau of Transportation, told the commissioners that dropping off patients on Southwest Curry was the best option.

鈥淲e would like to use Whitaker, and Curry would be better if it was one-way eastbound,鈥� he said.

Not everyone agreed. Commissioner Tad Savinar said he preferred the previous design and Commission Chair David Wark said carving back the corners 鈥渆rodes the impact鈥� of the architecture of the building.

But Commissioner Jeff Simpson said the new design creates more openness in an enclosed area.

鈥淚 like it better than going around corners,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 understand this solution.鈥�

Activating the corners of the residential building was also talked about at length at the four-hour hearing.

Commissioners heard proposals for moving two of the stairwells of the residence hall away from the corners to allow for more active corners. The current design suggests recessed panels to hold artwork, but Commissioner Don Vallaster said he would rather see a more activity at the corners.

鈥楾ACKY AND COLD’

Commissioners also discussed the metallic finish of the building, which Simpson called 鈥渢acky and cold.鈥�

鈥淚 appreciate the steps made on your previous proposal and more than appreciate this extremely sophisticated skin,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it’s cold for the neighborhood and intimidating to go into.鈥�

After the meeting, Newman said Simpson’s statement was 鈥渁 bit of a surprise鈥� and said it might be because Simpson had not been at previous reviews of the project.

鈥淲e didn’t do enough to share our interiors and how transparent they are,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淲e have good materials and color palette and probably didn’t do enough to share with him on the interiors.鈥�

Despite concerns, city planner Heron said the complex design of the two buildings was moving in the right direction and good progress had been made since the last review.

According to city documents, the new CHH South will act as an extension of CHH North, which has seven operating rooms. CHH South will add 10 more operating rooms. The building will house the Knight Cancer Institute, medical suites and offices.

CHH South will connect to the residential hall and parking garage through an underground utility tunnel at the second level of the existing garage for passage of materials and services.

On Block 28, the 11-story patient housing and parking garage structure will include more than 340,000 square feet. The ground floor will house a neighborhood urgent care clinic, a guest housing lobby, a conference center, a loading dock and support functions.

Guest housing will be in a four-story tower extending above the parking garage and overlooking a 60,000-square-foot green roof with a children’s play area on top of the garage roof at the sixth-floor level. The top four floors will have 76 rooms and support. The parking garage will provide 687 spaces on the second through sixth floors.